José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita

José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (Vila do Príncipe, now Serro, in Minas Gerais, 12 October 1746 – Rio de Janeiro, April 1805) was one of the most distinguished musicians of the captaincy of Minas Gerais in the second half of the eighteenth century. A composer and organist, he is regarded as the most prolific author in his captaincy and a key figure for understanding colonial Brazilian religious music.

The son of the Portuguese José Lobo de Mesquita and his enslaved woman Joaquina Emerenciana, he spent much of his life in Arraial do Tejuco, now Diamantina, where he settled around 1776, and also in Vila Rica (Ouro Prêto). In 1788 he joined the brotherhood of Nossa Senhora das Mercês dos Homens Crioulos de Tejuco, which confirms his status as a mulatto. He worked as organist at the church of Santo Antônio, at the Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo and, it seems, was the first organist of the Irmandade do Santíssimo Sacramento, all of them in Tejuco. In 1798 he moved to Vila Rica, where he worked as composer, director and organist for brotherhoods linked to the Carmelite Third Order and to the parish church of Nossa Senhora dos Homens Pardos, and where he was appointed ensign of the Terço de Infantaria dos Homens Pardos. In 1801 he settled in Rio de Janeiro, where he served as organist of the church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo until his death.

His earliest known works date from 1779, and many were copied throughout the nineteenth century in Minas Gerais and São Paulo. He cultivated above all an individual homophonic concertante style, whose elements often recall classical European practices. One musicologist described him as possessing an expressive and advanced technique for his time. He is the only composer whose works appear in all the sacred music archives of Minas Gerais.

His legacy is recognised in his designation as patron of chair no. 4 of the Brazilian Academy of Music.